Playfully Meeting
by aaliona
Summary: Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons cross over. The Big Four meet for the first time at Rapunzel's castle with Eugene and Astrid along for the ride. Without much else to do, they get playful. Some canon relationships


**My fiftieth story, guys! I've posted this in parts on Tumblr, but it's short enough to all go as one on here.**

**Timeline: ****After every movie. For the sake of Jack's, let's pretend that however far away in the future, all modern technology fails. The crisis pushes civilization back to a time more like the other three movies. Subsequently, the Guardians had a severe setback in the number of believers.**

Flynn watched in amusement as Rapunzel flitted about the room, every once in a while taking a large step out of habit from her days of climbing over hair. She hurried from the kitchen to the coffee table and back about a dozen times before he commented, "These friends of yours must be important."

She paused long enough to nod before bustling over to check that the coffee table was cleared.

"How do you know them again?" he asked, wanting to know as much as possible before they arrived.

Rapunzel stopped and glanced at him, tugging at the tips of her brunette locks. "Not all that well actually. I mean, Jack, yeah. He's been my friend for ages, but the others…" She trailed off, giving him a sheepish smile before adding, "I've never met them, but they should be nice."

"Nice?" he repeated, getting up to follow his fiancé as she continued to move about the room. "You have no idea who these people are."

"I don't have to," she said firmly, stopping once more. "They believe in Jack. That's all I need. If you want more, consider it political. We've got Princess DunBroch and the Chief of Berk's son coming. Surely being royalty puts them higher on your list, right?"

Flynn flopped down on the couch just as the trumpeter out in the main hall announced visitors. He immediately stood again, muttering about the poor timing.

Rapunzel ran over to the door, pushed it open, and beamed at people Flynn could not see from his angle. "Hello!" she said brightly. "Come on it. I hope you don't mind the informal setting, but we're all believers here. I assumed the throne room wasn't necessary."

"Trust me, I prefer it this way," drawled a Scottish girl with unruly hair as she entered the room, followed by a blond girl, a brunette boy, and a figure floating in the air.

Although it was rude to ignore the others, Flynn stepped forward and addressed the boy in the air. "So you're in infamous Jack Frost. Glad finally meet you." The white-haired boy opened his mouth, but Flynn quickly cut him off. "You can call me Flynn Rider."

The boy nodded in confusion, confirming Flynn's suspicions that Rapunzel had told Frost his real name.

That issue resolved, Flynn turned to Rapunzel, who was in mid-hug with the Scottish girl. He moved closer to them and held out his hand to shake hers. "Mary, right?"

Her eyes hardened momentarily before relaxing. "Merida," she corrected. "Not Mary."

"My apologies," he said, sweeping low in a bow before turning to the remaining two. "I don't remember your name," he said to the boy. Rapunzel had referred to the boy as Hiccup, but surely he did not have a name that ridiculous.

"Hiccup."

Hiding his surprise as best he could, Flynn shook the odd-named boy's hand.

As he turned to the girl, she answered without his asking, "Astrid."

"Flynn Rider," he replied.

"What's up first for the day, Rapunzel?" Frost asked from his place next to her.

Turning pale, she whirled around to face Flynn, who moved to her side from the panic on her face. "I forgot to make plans," she moaned. "I was so excited about you coming, I didn't make an itinerary."

"Don't worry," Merida said with a grin. "I'm sure we can cause trouble without planning."

Astrid laughed in agreement. "Oh, I know we can. You're all just lucky Hiccup and I didn't bring the dragons!"

Merida, for all her vibrato, became completely still. "Dragons?" A moment later, she wheeled on Frost. "You didn't mention dragons!"

He chuckled and asked, "Does that frighten you?"

"Hardly!" Turning back to Astrid, she added, "You have to let me near one sometime! I'd love to ride one. Berk, right? You guys learned to train them?"

Thumping Hiccup on the back, the taller girl said, "That's right, and Hiccup here's the one who learned how."

Merida looked at him as though she was seeing the boy for the first time.

"So who has an idea of what we can do?" Frost asked.

"Quick," Astrid said, pointing at Flynn. "The first thing that pops into your head."

Now Flynn was not good under pressure – at least not this kind of thing. So he immediately felt ashamed of himself when he blurted out, "Strip poker."

Rapunzel elbowed him in the side, but before Flynn could give her a sheepish smile, Hiccup drew their attention.

"No, no, no, no, no!" His anxiety seemed to grow with each word.

"Come on, Hiccup," Astrid cooed, her tone sending chills down Flynn's spine. "Don't you think it would be fun?"

Hiccup gulped audibly as Astrid slipped close enough to him to make him and everyone else uncomfortable. "I… I could—"

"That's a great idea," Frost cut in, and Astrid stepped back. "We'll have to keep it in mind, but maybe we should start with more of an ice breaker." He looked at the group as a whole. "Anyone have an option?"

"Two truths and a lie?" suggested Hiccup, still looking flustered from having his girlfriend so close.

Merida shook her head. "Never have I ever?"

Flynn's eyes widened and he added, "No alcohol."

"What on earth would we need alcohol for?" The redhead cocked her head.

"Well… How do you play the game? There're different versions."

She shrugged. "When I played at home, we would take whatever the grossest thing in the kitchen was. If you'd done something, you had to take a bit cut by the person who asked the question."

"Lemon juice."

"What was that?" Flynn asked.

"Lemon juice," Rapunzel repeated. "I know we have a lot of it, and that stuff's lethal when drunk straight."

After a bit more discussion, Flynn was sent to get the juice. He loaded up a tray with a large bottle of the sour liquid and six shot glasses. When he returned to the room, only Frost seemed to recognize the glasses' true purpose.

The group had migrated over to the four couches near the fire, so Flynn set the tray on the center coffee table before plopping down next to Rapunzel.

"Who wanted to start?" the brunette girl asked, bouncing in her seat.

"I will," Frost offered. "I never have I ever kissed a guy."

* * *

Jack watched in amusement as Rapunzel and Astrid both bolted back their glasses, slamming them onto the table with a shudder. A moment later, Flynn reached for his.

"It was a complete misunderstanding," he insisted before taking his shot. "I was dressed in drag to avoid the guards, and this fellow – completely smashed, by the way – he comes up and plants one on me before I can protest."

"My turn?" Hiccup asked after the laughter died down, and Jack nodded for him to go. "I never have I ever… ridden a horse."

Everyone else drank, the burning sensation down Jack's throat quite different than his usual chill.

Astrid smiled and said, "I could be original, but never have I ever kissed a girl."

Letting his eyes drift around the room, Jack picked up his glass.

"Spirits get action?" Merida teased.

After his glass was back on the table, Jack said, "Not exactly, although there's been a few opportunities. Let's just say I was a troublemaker in my human days."

"Man after my own heart," Flynn joked as he reached over to slap Jack on the back.

"My turn?" Merida's face held confusion for a few seconds before grinning at Hiccup. "I never have I ever ridden a dragon."

The brunette boy and his girlfriend both grumbled as they drank.

"I never have I lied to my parents," said Rapunzel.

Flynn glared at her. "Drink."

"But I haven't," she said, tugging at the tips of her short hair.

"You thought Gothel was your mother, and you lied to her. It counts, so drink."

"He's right," Jack said after finishing his own shot. He laughed as Rapunzel stuck out her tongue and took her lemon glass.

Then Jack glanced at Hiccup, and his smile faded. The dragon tamer looked so much like Jamie that it hurt. Jamie had died too soon in a car crash while Jack was on the other side of the globe. He had also tried more than once to kiss his spirit friend.

Jack had been too afraid to let him.

Flynn loudly cleared his throat, and Jack returned to the present in time to hear, "Never have I had gay intentions."

Keeping his head down and cursing the timing, Jack picked up his glass.

No one said a word.

"He was my first believer," he explained, keeping his voice as void of emotion as possible. "Jamie… He was the only one who grew up and still believed."

Rapunzel stood and walked over to Jack's couch. She put a hand on his shoulder. "He won't be the only one. We'll always believe."

Jack looked ruefully at the group. "I'm sure you will." With a group this special, he hoped at least one of them would never give up their belief. "I never have I ever lived in a castle."

* * *

They continued to play until the lemon juice was gone, and Hiccup felt sicker than the time he had eaten raw fish.

"What now?" he asked, a hand on his stomach.

Grinning widely, Jack bolted to his feet. "Let's play a kissing game."

"We've got couples here," Rapunzel said.

"The closet one?" Flynn suggested, sliding an arm around his fiancé's waist; she snuggled into his side. "Then they can just sit there if they don't want to do anything."

"How should we do it?" Jack asked.

Merida leaned forward and tipped the empty juice bottle on its side. "One person spins," she said. "Whoever they get goes in the closet with them for five minutes. Then the first person comes out and spins for the second. Whoever gets spun that time goes in and stays to be spun for next. Sound good?"

Everyone agreed, so Hiccup asked, "Why don't you go first?"

She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and spun.

Hiccup groaned as it landed on him. He turned to give Astrid puppy dog eyes. She simply ushered him off the couch.

Filled with apprehension, he followed Merida into the dark closet. As the door shut behind him, he said, "We don't have t—Mmff!"

Merida had grabbed him by the collar and pressed her lips to his.

At first rigid with surprise, Hiccup relaxed and let his eyes droop closed. The kiss was quite pleasant with Merida's lips moist and soft against his. It was different from the passionate force and chapped lips his kisses with Astrid held.

Thinking of his girlfriend, Hiccup shoved the Scottish princess away. He opened his mouth to yell at her.

"I'm sorry," she said, cutting him off before he could speak. "I know you've got that lass out there, but I needed this."

Stunned, Hiccup shut his mouth.

"I wanted my first kiss to be special," Merida admitted. "Since I don't have anyone, I figured it should be someone like you."

"Like me?" Hiccup repeated dumbly.

"A dragon tamer." She smiled shyly, and Hiccup could just make it out in the near darkness. "Someone wild and adventurous, someone I'd like to be."

He did not have the heart to explain that her ideal was not him at all.

Before Hiccup could figure out how to respond, the door opened. Jack stood grinning. As the two squinted against the bright light of the main room, he said, "Come on out, Merida. Hiccup needs his next catch."

Jack shut the door behind the redhead, leaving Hiccup to wonder in the dark who his next catastrophe would be.

The door opened and shut so fast that Hiccup could not tell who had come in with him. It was not until Astrid spoke that his heart froze.

"You kissed her, didn't you?"

* * *

Astrid listened to Hiccup sputter like a dying fish for a moment before he lamely said, "She kissed me."

"Did you kiss her back?"

No answer.

With a heavy sigh, she put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, Hiccup, I don't care. Well, I do! What I mean is that I forgive you."

Hiccup's eyes were as big as her shield when he said, "You do? You're not holding it against me?"

"Everybody makes mistakes," she said. "She's pretty, I guess, if you're into that sort of thing."

"I'm not," Hiccup said much too fast for it to be true.

Ignoring the dig from that fact, Astrid wrapped her arms around his neck. "Then kiss me."

When Hiccup did as commanded, Astrid threw everything she had into it, pushing him against the wall. This kiss needed to explain how she felt about him. If the next spin went how she wanted, Astrid risked blowing up everything.

All too soon, Jack opened the door. "Break it up, lovebirds," he ordered.

As Hiccup left, he had on his half-sleepy look on contentment. She gave him a small wave, and he shut the door.

It felt like she waited for ages before the door opened again. When it did, Astrid's breath caught in her throat.

"Hey," he said, flashing her a knee-weakening smile. "Astrid, right?"

She nodded as he shut that door. "Yeah, Flynn Rider?"

"That's right." He moved slowly in the dark, making his way over to the far wall to sit.

Slinking over to him, Astrid commented. "That's a cool name."

He shrugged.

As she sat next to him, Astrid prayed he would not notice her staring at his jawline. "Exciting names often go with exciting people." She forced herself to look at her feet. "What do you do?"

She did not expect him to laugh.

Astrid jerked her head up to look at him again.

"I'm in the royal guard now."

"That's pretty cool."

He shrugged again. "I suppose. It's not quite on the same exhilarating level as my old job. I used to be a thief."

"Well, isn't that exciting?" she said softly and kissed him.

Not two seconds later, he shoved her away and jumped to his feet. She scrambled up after him.

"What was that?" he demanded.

Astrid rubbed her arm. "I thought—"

"Knock, knock," Jack announced as he pulled open the door.

When she looked at Hiccup, Astrid's panic rose, seeing his eyes locked with Flynn's. Those brown eyes slide over to hers momentarily before he stood and stomped into the kitchen.

She hurried over to spin and ran after Hiccup as soon as the bottle landed on ex-Goldilocks.

Nearly whispering, Astrid said, "Look, it isn't—"

"Save it," he snapped. "We shared a guy look. Flynn told me everything."

Astrid let her voice rise. "Why are you so mad? You kissed the Scotts girl."

"She kissed me first."

"And you kissed her back!" Realizing how loud they had become, Astrid quietly added, "I think it should be even. It was just one time. Each. Let's forget it."

Hiccup shook his head. "Two wrongs don't make a right."

And he walked back to the main room.

* * *

"I swear I pushed her away as soon as it happened!" Eugene's eyes were wide, and he threw his hands out as he talked, as if he thought his words alone would be unable to convince her.

Rapunzel found it endearing.

"I believe you," she said, cutting off his long-winded explanation. "For a smooth talking ex-con, you are a terrible liar, so I know you're telling the truth.

Grinning in relief, Eugene pulled her close and touched his nose to hers. "That's good to hear."

She laughed. "I think you babbled away at least half our time."

Tracing a finger over the stone on her left hand, he replied, "That's all right. We've got all the time in the world."

Jack opened the door with a guarded expression. "Glad to see one couple is still talking."

Perplexed, Rapunzel followed Eugene back into the main room. She stopped in the doorway to survey her new friends. Instead of the couch he had been on earlier, Hiccup now sat next to Merida; he seemed determined to look anywhere except at Astrid. For her part, Astrid looked miserable. When she met eyes with Rapunzel, her face held shame and sorrow. Rapunzel smiled in return to tell her that it was forgiven.

Rapunzel was quite familiar with the effect Eugene had on women, intentional or not. Most women were immediately taken back by Flynn Rider's looks and manners. She herself had been immune, but the only male she had seen before him had been Jack, also a pretty boy.

"I'm the last one," said the aforementioned pretty boy. "Maybe I should go in, and then we can more on to something else."

Rapunzel stifled a laugh as her Guardian friend looked to Eugene for a final answer. Her fiancé waved a hand, telling him to go on in.

As he shut the door, Jack commented, "I guess your little boy toy assumes he can trust me."

"He can," Rapunzel said as they flopped down on the ground.

"What's up with him anyway? I thought you said he was Eugene, not Flynn. Don't tell me you got a new one already?"

At the coy smirk on his face, she laughed. "No, no. It's nothing like that. It's a long story, and most of it isn't mine to tell. His name's Eugene, but I shouldn't have told you that when I did. He took the name Flynn Rider because it better fit the kind of person he wanted to be."

Jack nodded, she assumed because he also had experience with a name change representing a new beginning.

He grinned. "So if I call him Eugene, he'll kill me?"

"Of course not," she giggled, "but he might steal your staff."

Jack appeared genuinely terrified at the thought.

Sombering, Rapunzel asked, "What exactly happened out there with Hiccup and Aster?"

"Astrid," Jack corrected, his eyes darkening. "I'm not sure. I know Hiccup was angry that she kissed—" His eyes flicked to hers to gauge her emotion level. "—Flynn, but apparently when Merida kissed him, he reciprocated and Astrid said she'd forgive him. They didn't break up, per say, but I wouldn't expect them to be together after this."

"That's not good."

He shook his head. "No, and it's a shame. They were good together. Having Astrid made Hiccup surer of himself."

Rapunzel nodded and waited a moment, wondering whether or not she should mention it. Finally she did, speaking quietly and softly.

"Jack, out there… You mentioned a boy. I— You'd never mentioned him before. What was he like?"

He looked up at her ruefully. "Jamie. His name was Jamie, and he was the best friend I ever had."

The sting that gave Rapunzel should have been avoidable. Her bond with Jack was so strong because he was her first friend; obviously she could not compete with his first believer.

"He looked… A lot like Hiccup. They aren't exactly alike. The hair is, but the rest of them's just similar. Like their eyes. Their eyes are the same color, except Jamie's were always filled with wonder. They've got the same lanky figure, although I think Hiccup will bulk up. Anyway, they don't carry themselves the same. Hiccup still has that chip in his shoulder while Jamie had bounce."

As if coming out of a hazy, Jack looked at Rapunzel again. "Sorry if that was a lot. I just want to make sure you know that Jamie isn't the reason I'm friends with Hiccup."

Rapunzel smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I would never think something that low," she promised.

In the comfortable silence that followed, Eugene opened the door.

* * *

Merida shifted uncomfortably as Flynn escorted Jack and Rapunzel back to the couches. Having Hiccup so close to her made concentrating difficult.

Instead of sitting, Rapunzel moved to the window. "It's nearly supper time," she announced, facing the group. "Now might be a good stopping point. You all could go to your rooms to get settled before we have food."

"Sounds good to me," Merida mumbled, eager to get off the couch.

"Jack, do you want a room?"

He shook his head. "There's a certain tower I want to go visit. Someone hasn't let me see her artwork since she was fifteen," he added with a wink.

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "I'll take the rest of you to your rooms. Flynn, will you go tell the cooks we'll wish to eat soon."

He nodded and turned one way down the hall. After Jack flew out the window, the rest went in the other direction.

"Here are you rooms," Rapunzel said, motioning to three doors. "Pick whichever you like."

Astrid hurried into the nearest room and slammed the door.

"Oh dear." Rapunzel looked after her anxiously, tugging at her hair. "I should talk to her." She knocked on the door before letting herself in, leaving Merida and Hiccup alone in the hall.

Biting her lip, Merida stared at the floor. Her eyes eventually fixed on Hiccup's metal leg.

"Giant dragon."

"Huh?" Her gaze sifted back to his face.

Swinging his let, Hiccup said, "I lost it in an accident with a giant dragon."

"I wasn't—" She cut off and smiled. "You must have been brave."

He burst out laughing. "Brave?" Hiccup shook his head. "I was scared out of my mind. That's how it is most of the time."

As he turned away, she replied, "I think that's what true bravery is: facing the things you fear most."

Hiccup looked back with a smile that melted Merida's insides. "Is that so?" He paused, then asked, "Are you still interested in that dragon ride?"

"Of course," she said, not quite believing that he would suggest it.

"Cool." He put his hand on the knob of the next room. "We'll have to arrange it."

With that, he went inside, leaving Merida with just enough time to control her trembling emotions before dinner.


End file.
